The last time director Neil Jordan and author Patrick McCabe collaborated was in 1997’s “The Butcher Boy,” a brilliant yet shocking work that moved between sly social comedy and bleak, disturbing drama. Expect nothing less from this latest offering. Set in the politically tumultuous London of the 1970s, “Breakfast on Pluto” follows the misadventures of Patrick Brady (Cillian Murphy), a transvestite from a small town in Ireland, on his/her quest to find his mother and a place to call home. The personal battles of being gay in repressive conditions are meshed with the larger context of the horrific political battles between Irish and English in this most chaotic of decades.

“Breakfast on Pluto” is likely to deliver a mix of Irish wit and color with an unremitting frankness that few but Neil Jordan are able to combine. (Also expect some great use of period music.) Indeed, Jordan has explored and challenged the social morays of Catholic Ireland in some of his previous work, from religion and the “Irish Issue” (“Michael Collins”) to sexual ambiguity (“The Crying Game”). McCabe’s book thus appears fruitful pickings for Jordan’s keen appetite for the controversial, bizarre and gritty.
Regulars and fine Irish character actors Liam Neeson, Brendon Gleeson and the sublime Stephen Rea are joined by relative newcomer Cillian Murphy. An actor of definite promise, Murphy has appeared on U.S. screens twice already this summer in the blockbuster “Batman Begins” and in the surprise hit thriller “Red Eye.” Those who were worried that Murphy was taking the Colin Farrell route to Hollywood mediocrity need not worry. Talk of Oscars already abounds for the emotional range expressed in this role as the beautifully feminine Patrick Brady. “Breakfast on Pluto” has people talking, and this may be one of those rare occasions when it’s deserved.

Edmond
U.S., 2005, 75 minutes, First Independent Pictures
Saturday @ 2 p.m.

In a 2003 interview, NPR’s Steve Inskeep asked William H. Macy how he’s ended up playing losers so often, in films like “Fargo” and “The Cooler.” “I got cast,” Macy replied. “I wish I could tell you I’ve guided my career, but mostly I pick up the phone.”

Casting, of course, is largely based on looks, and moviegoers have witnessed how well Macy’s odd features lend themselves to hangdog expressions. When Macy plays down and out, he earns our sympathy. The trick rests in his generosity toward his characters—his fellow-feeling rescues them from being merely pathetic. Or, as he modestly put it, “I guess I’ve figured out a way to make losers and somewhat despicable people compelling.”

Macy’s latest role, though, as the star of “Edmond,” was written by David Mamet (“Oleanna,” “Glengarry Glen Ross”), a writer not known for generous sentiments. Fast-paced overlapping dialogue and abusive terms of address leave little space for Mamet’s audiences to feel anything more than successive objections to what’s taking place. How does the likeable Macy fit into this world?

It turns out that the blue eyes under those bristling brows can blaze as well as water, that when not hanging slack those arms can swing an ax. Edmond is an ordinary businessman who, without warning, goes off the deep end, looking for cheap gratification and expounding crackpot theories about the meaning of honesty. He’s filled with a purist’s zeal and overflowing with impure, pent-up rage.

Because it’s Mamet, it’s a difficult movie in many ways—provocative and even repugnant. (Asked why he killed a girl, Edmond replies, “Wanna hear something funny? Now don’t laugh—I think I just had too much coffee.”) But the seeming ease with which Macy takes on a wholly unsympathetic character makes his performance feel strangely like a revelation.

Capote
U.S., 2005, 109 minutes, Sony Classics
Saturday @ 6:30 p.m.

Truman Capote was a larger-than-life character. His book, “In Cold Blood,” expanded from a New Yorker article in which he reported about a family of four murdered in the Kansas farm country, made him an international star and introduced the world to the True Crime section of the bookstore. Given the spotlight, Capote took every opportunity to swagger and flaunt his fame, being seen at all the right places, including Studio 54 a the height of its debauchery. But long before all of that there was a writer, a murderer and a story to tell. Sony Classics’ “Capote” features what some are calling the year’s most compelling performance: Phillip Seymour Hoffman channeling Truman Capote.

Hoffman, 38, has been in the background of a long list of high profile movies including “Scent of a Woman,” “The Getaway,” “Nobody’s Fool,” “Twister,” “The Talented Mr. Ripley,” “Almost Famous,” “Red Dragon,” “Cold Mountain” and the upcoming “Mission Impossible 3,” to name just a few. He even guest starred on “Law & Order” in 1991. But it is undoubtedly in Paul Thomas Anderson’s films (of which Hoffman has been in every one) that he’s had the greatest depth of character, from the breakthrough role of Scotty (the guy with the Camaro) in “Boogie Nights” to the central character of nurse Phil Parma in “Magnolia.” Hoffman has impressed audiences with not only his openness and ability to reveal the humanity in wildly varied and often unlikable characters, but also his apparently fearless attitude toward accepting challenging roles.

Twice nominated for a Tony Award (Broadway’s Oscars), the never-predictable actor has now taken on the role of executive producer, in addition to the role of Capote, in a film that delves into the relationship between author and subject, journalist and criminal, and most importantly, between two human beings. Oscar buzz is alive with Hoffman’s name, as much for his impressive resume as for this particular role, as the Academy is wont to do.

There are other people in “Capote” to be sure, most notably the wonderful Catherine Keener, who plays Harper Lee, Capote’s foil in the small Midwest town that doesn’t quite “get” Capote’s—ahem—jovial nature. Keener, currently co-starring in the box office hit “The 40 Year Old Virgin,” is most often remembered as the entrepreneurial Maxine in “Being John Malkovich.” The inimitable Chris Cooper as Sheriff Alvin Dewey and the superb character actor Bob Balaban, probably best known as the head of NBC on Seinfeld, also star.

But it is with Hoffman that the excitement for “Capote” lies. His fame is broadening and his skill at getting to the heart of characters, finding the emotions and fears that connect us all, is what makes him both a great actor and a perfect match for this story about a man finding the person inside the cold-blooded killer.

Paradise Now
Israel/Palestine, 2005, 90 minutes,
Warner Independent Pictures
Saturday @ 9 p.m.

After more than a year of nonstop violence in Iraq and the London bombings only a month or so behind us, is the world ready for a film that chronicles the final hours of a pair of suicide bombers? Hany Abu-Assad, writer and director of “Paradise Now,” seems to think so.

In a recent New York Times interview, Abu-Assad said that filmmakers cannot be led by political issues. “You try to understand what’s going on in the minds of people. … You just look at it as a story, and you give it the form of a film.”

In this case, the would-be bombers take the form of Said (Kais Nashef) and Khaled (Ali Suliman), a couple of Palestinian men working as auto mechanics in the Israeli-occupied city of Nablus. Eager to do their part for the Palestinian resistance, the two sign up with the local martyrs brigade and soon enough are fitted with explosives and sent on their way. But things don’t pan out like they planned, and Said and Khaled are left to face their own consciences as well as the wrath of Suha (Lubna Azabal), a young woman who’s attracted Said’s interest.

Early reviews of the film describe it as being straightforward and rather apolitical, a story about basic human feelings and experiences rather than radical ideologies. Indeed, Abu-Assad said he did a hefty amount of research beforehand, interviewing the families of suicide bombers as well as examining Israeli military transcripts of interrogations of thwarted bombers.

Research aside, saying Abu-Assad has made a potent film is a bit of an understatement. The film is making the rounds of the festival circuit and got the approval of Israel’s official censor, but audiences will decide if they’re ready to see a human face on terrorism.